1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which executes writing and reading information to and from a storage medium, and a method thereof. The present invention relates also to a program to be executed by such an information processing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
When data to be stored on various types of storage media, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), is managed, a file system is often adopted to manage the data in file units. As an example of a format of such a file system, FAT and Hierarchical File System (HFS), for example, are known.
The existence of such a file system between, for example, an application and a driver or the like of a storage medium allows the application to perform operations (file operations), such as reading or writing of a file, without being conscious of a physical data storage structure of the storage medium.
Further, recently, storage capacities of many types of storage media are increasing due to factors such as reduction in cost per bit and improvement in recording density. At the same time, high speed of various types of information processing is progressed. Under such a situation, the storage medium has become capable of storing a file (content file) of data formed by a content such as a large number of still pictures, moving pictures, or sounds.
Under a current situation, examples of apparatuses for recording and playing back a content such as still pictures, moving pictures, or sounds include a digital still camera and a digital video camera. In such apparatuses, given the situation where a large number of content files can be stored in the storage medium, factors such as ease of searching and browsing and enough accompanying information become important in view of convenience for users.
As described earlier, the file system originally aimed to be used for managing the data stored in a storage medium at file units. Thus, file-related information items defined by the file system are limited to basic information items, such as a file name (an extension, as well), a file size, date and time of creation, and date and time of updating. For example, in the case of a content file in which an image serves to be an information content of the content file, it is preferable that various types of information other than the above-described basic information be presented, for example, in the form of a list. However, this is difficult to achieve by a file management based solely on the file system.
Further, since the file system is basically adopted in various types of storage media such as a HDD, conversely, it is difficult to extend accompanying information of this type.
Therefore, it has been proposed and implemented that a basic management generally about files stored in the storage medium is performed by the file system as has been done, and at the same time, management information (management file) of a file type formed to include information for exclusively managing the content file stored in the storage medium is used (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-227630).